Searching the Internet

Transcription

1 Searching the Internet Desktop the main screen on your computer. This can be customized to display files or programs. Icons the small pictures that represent a file or program on the computer. Double click on an icon to open it. Internet a group of globally connected computers that can send information back and forth from one computer to many other computers. World Wide Web (www) part of the Internet where graphic, text and sound files can be accessed Browser (Web Browser) a software program used to view information from the Internet. For example: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Safari. Website a place on the World Wide Web that serves as the online location for an organization, business or individual URL (Uniform Resource Locator) the address for a website Home Page the first page displayed when you open the web browser. This term is also used to describe the main page of a website. Search Engine a program used to search for websites and information. For example: Google and Yahoo. Link an image or text that appears on a web page. Click on a link to open another web page, document, etc.

2 Navigating the Internet Using Internet Explorer Address Bar the website address (URL) is displayed and can be entered here Refresh reloads the web page Stop stops the web page from loading, stops web page activity Back Button go back a web page Forward Button click to undo the back button Menu Bar lists available commands Home takes you to the homepage set on your web browser Print print the document Maximize the browser fills the screen and the button changes Close exits the browser Minimize shrinks the browser to the Taskbar Restore Down returns the browser to original size

3 Searching with Google Search engines are programs used to search for websites and information from the World Wide Web. Keywords, names, places, phrases, etc. can be entered as search terms. How does Google work? Google indexes the text found on web pages. Google matches the words in a search to the words appearing in web pages. Google will include all words entered. Too many words will limit results. Google will favour web pages with the search terms in phrases, close together and in the order typed. Results displayed will usually have the most relevant information at the top of the screen. Results are ranked based on the number of times the words entered appeared on a page and where they appear (title, description, etc.). Choosing the right search terms is the key to finding information. Keep it simple. o Enter a keyword, name, place, etc. Refine your search. o Add relevant words to improve results. Use Canadian spelling o Using American versus Canadian spelling will affect search results. Homonyms Watch for words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. o Bat mammal or baseball o Polish language or shoe polish Synonyms Try different words that have the same or similar meaning. o recipes and cooking o fitness and exercise

4 Google has an automatic spell checker, so you can ignore: Capital letters Punctuation Spelling Google uses the most common spelling of a given word but cannot always interpret what you mean. As you start to type your search term(s), Google automatically shows popular searches that begin with those letters. Click on a suggestion. Connect to the information you need faster, before you even finish typing your search. The Google apps grid is used to explore different options such as Maps, News and YouTube. It also provides quick access to different services such as Drive, Calendar and more. Click on the grid to display the options.

5 Examining Search Results Evaluate the quality of information from a website using the information found in a search result. Search results will display: Number of results Title with link Website/URL Description Search term(s) in bold Looking at the website address (URL) can help to identify the type of information on the website. The domain extension refers to the last part of a URL:.com = commercial (not exclusively used for profitable websites).ca = Canadian.gov = government.gc = Canadian government.edu = educational institution.org = organization (primarily used by non-profit groups) The cached and similar options can be found by clicking on the green drop down arrow beside the website address/url. Cached Click to see the web page as it looked when Google last indexed it. The cached link won't appear for websites that haven't been indexed or for those that requested not to have their content cached. Similar Click to see other websites that are related to that search result.

6 At the bottom of the search results, Google may offer related search terms. Clicking on the text will begin a new search. On the top of your search results page, filtering options can be used to customize search results. Results can be filtered by date, location, pages from Canada, etc. When a filter option is selected the search results will change. Websites may have an internal search option. This allows users to search the content of a specific website. For websites without an internal search, press and hold the Ctrl key then press the F key. This results in a Find box to appear on the web page. Type the word you are looking for in the box. The word will be highlighted throughout the web page.

7 Google Web Search Features Google has many special features to help you to find exactly what you re looking for. Some of the most popular features are: Define to see a definition for a word, simply type the word define then a space, then the word you want defined into the search box. Calculator to use Google s built in calculator function, simply enter the calculation you d like done into the search box. Conversion to convert between different currencies, temperatures and units of measurement, among others, enter the desired conversion into the search box and Google will do the rest. Weather to see the weather for cities worldwide, type weather followed by the city into the search box Flight Tracking to see the flight status for arriving and departing flights, type in the name of the airline and the flight number into the search box Maps to find a map type in the name of a location and the word map into the search box. Clicking on the map will take you to a larger version on Google Maps. Movies to find times for movies playing near you, type movies or the name of a current film and the city into the search box Time to see the time in cities around the world, type in time and the name of the city into the search box

8 Internet Explorer Options Print from a web page o Select File from the menu bar or Click the drop down arrow beside the Printer icon on the toolbar or Right click on page o Select Print preview... to see how the pages you are about to print look on paper. o Click the Print Document icon o Select the page range to print o Click Print Set a Home Page o Select Tools from the menu bar o Select Internet options o Select General o Select Use Current if you are on the website OR type the URL in the space provided o Click Ok or o Click the drop down arrow beside the Home icon on the toolbar o Select Add or change homepage... Make a website/web page a Favorite o Go to a website that you like o Select Favorites from the menu bar o Select Add to favorites o Click Add Remove a website/web page from the Favorite list o Select Favorites from the menu bar o Select Organize Favorites o Select the website to delete o Click the Delete button Create a desktop shortcut o Go to a website that you like o Right click anywhere on the web page o Select Create Shortcut o Click Yes Remove a desktop shortcut o Right click on the icon o Select Delete o Click Yes